Sunday 10 May 2009 13.15 EDT
First published on Sunday 10 May 2009 13.15 EDT

After the golden-point drama between Castleford and Halifax on Saturday night the Featherstone coach, Daryl Powell, said he had expected his Championship side to push Warrington much closer than this. That they did not was mainly down to a thoroughly professional performance from the Wolves, and especially from their stand-in captain, Michael Monaghan.

The Australian half-back has been the subject of intense speculation, despite having two years left on his contract after this one, but he pushed all that aside to lead Warrington to a comfortable Challenge Cup victory.

"It was the best I've seen him play since I've been at the club," his coach, Tony Smith, said. "I thought he was ­terrific – the way he approached the game was ­excellent. I was pretty pleased with all aspects of our game."

Monaghan's performance helped to ensure that this was no fairy tale afternoon for the veteran Featherstone stand-off Iestyn ­Harris, who was playing against the club with whom he started his ­professional career in 1993. Harris's afternoon was summed up in the closing stages, when he threw an intercepted pass that led to a try for Chris Bridge.

"We're a little bit disappointed," Powell said. "We started well and put some pressure on them but we weren't able to sustain that. That's the main difference between the Championship and Super League – the consistency of effort."

Powell's side led 4–0 after the first quarter, courtesy of Tommy Saxton's try, but by half-time they were 20–4 down after tries by Simon Grix, ­Monaghan, Paul Wood and Richie Mathers. Mathers scored a second after half-time and the prolific Chris Hicks scored two. Ben Harrison, Chris Riley and Bridge finished off the scoring.